Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of the Immigration measure now under consideration. Our present immigration laws are based on the national origins of our population as it was constituted nearly 50 years ago. and assign large quotas to countries that neither need them nor want them. At the same time. other nations with which we have close ties are given small quotas and very long waiting lists. As an example. in the Second District of New Jersey. which I have the honor to represent. we have 23.727 citizens who were born in Italy. according to the 1960 census. Time and again I have had the sad duty of notifying families among this group that the present annual quota of immigrants from Italy does not permit relatives of theirs to come to the United States. At present. the Italian quota Is 5.666 annually. whereas. under terms of the immigration measure we are considering here. the quota would be almost quadrupledraised to 20.000 anuually. And that is only one example of many I could cite. As a result of the present immigration laws. we are depriving the United States of people whose skills we urgently need and we are delaying the day when many American citizens can be united with their families. * I am pleased to note that I submitted an immigration measure similar to the bill now under consideration. and I am anxious that the bill we are debating be enacted into law. No nation can base its immigration procedures on more practical or humane bases than those included in this measurethe contributions an applicant can make to our country through his skills and his family relationship to an American citizen. I urge that my colleagues give favorable consideration to this important and longoverdue measure and I hope it will become the law of our land during this session of the Congress.
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Immigration immigration immigrants